Education Commons^™

Implementation Of An Early College Design In A Rural High School: Empowering Place-Conscious Leadership To Affect Change And Overcome Barriers To Innovation, Michael Timko

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This qualitative, improvement science, autoethnograpic case study aims to examine a unique perspective on rural research through the lens of place-conscious leadership. With an identified problem of inequity in advanced-level course offerings, which resulted in lost student opportunities and student attrition to neighboring schools, the leadership at Forest Lakes High School (FLHS) in rural South Carolina began the ambitious journey of reframing their narrative. As a scholarly researcher and administrator at FLHS, I had the unique opportunity to immerse myself fully in all aspects of this study. My dual positionality allowed me to study this process while sharing the lived …

The Erasure Of Rural West Texas Voices In Higher Education Institutions An Autoethnographic Study Of Minoritized Students Of West Texas In Their Journey To Obtain Success In Higher Education Institutions, David Whaley-Weems Sr

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I was once told there is a person in the world who has locked within his or her mind the framework for the cure for cancer or even the ability to create an energy model that will revolutionize how society consumes natural resources. Now imagine if I told you I have seen that person alive and well working as an oil well driller on a rig in Mentone, Texas. The first question most people would ask is, “Why is the person drilling in the middle of nowhere Texas instead of impacting the world by way of displaying his or her …

My Superintendent Journey From Educator To Activist: An Autoethnography Across Three Decades, Betty Bagley

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Superintendents rise to the highest level of professional educational leadership within local communities. National statistics show increasing turnover in that district-level position. Superintendents come and go, which means their accomplishments fade in time. Superintendents rarely tell their stories of successes, failures, pressures, expectations, challenges, or any experiences within their highly visible role. This gap shows a lack of access to superintendents’ perspectives, and that gap may affect current and aspiring superintendents’ potential.

Given a two-century historical gap in the literature about educational leadership with few accounts from superintendents’ perspectives, my study described my journey through three superintendencies from 1993 to …

Navigating The World Of Academia As A Mother And Contingent Faculty Member: A Narrative Inquiry, Kathryn Ledford

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Although women hold many professional positions, they are still held accountable to present gendered customs like parenting children. Additionally, women who work in higher education are surrounded by masculine norms. For academic women who are also mothers like the author, many obstacles confront their management of the interlocking spheres of home, work and self. An examination of these women's narratives will illuminate how women navigate the world of academia, while maintaining our roles as mothers and individual identities.
For women who are mothers of children under six years old, and who are also contingent faculty members at four-year institutions, both …